22. Aimee
Aimee
The strobing lights flash pink, red, and blue, making it nearly impossible to think. Yet, Luna sits at the bar, unfazed and studying.
“So this is where you escape to when you have an upcoming final?” I stop at the bar beside her.
A dancer takes the stage, and her top is off before I even finish my question.
Luna shrugs, glancing around Sapphire Rise, the Twisted Kings strip club. “Ghost needed to upgrade a server, and I needed to get out of the clubhouse for a bit. Figured at least here Soul won’t keep distracting me out of boredom.”
I lean against the bar, facing out into the club.
It’s the middle of the afternoon, so there are only a few people scattered throughout.
The dancer onstage does the splits against the pole before spinning around it.
Even with daily yoga, I’m not nearly that flexible, so I understand why she has the entire room’s attention.
That and her perfect curves.
Not that Levi seems to notice like everyone else. He’s too busy updating Chaos about a phone call he just received from Steel, which is why we’re here.
“Where is Ghost?” I glance around, not seeing him.
“In the office. He hides as much as possible when he’s working, and he hates when he has to come here. It’s too loud.” Luna smiles, shaking her head.
I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve never seen Ghost interact with anyone other than Luna or the members of the club.
And even when he speaks to club members, his conversations are clipped and to the point.
It figures that even in a club filled to the brim with beautiful, naked women, he’d be locked away in a back office.
“Couldn’t you study in the office then? It’s so loud out here. And those lights…” I shield my eyes when a strobing beam shoots in them.
“I think better when there’s noise.” She shrugs, glancing over her shoulder at a closed door at the end of a long hallway. “What are you and Havoc up to?”
“Levi took me clothes shopping so I don’t need to keep borrowing yours and Reagan’s.”
“We don’t mind.”
“I know.” I glance over at Luna. “But still, it feels good to wear something that is mine again.”
She nods, understanding. “Did you really come to Vegas with only a small bag of things? ”
“I had more, but it was left at the motel when the Iron Sinners found me.” It wasn’t much more, considering I’ve spent a decade on the move.
After getting away from the Iron Sinners when I was twenty, I never stayed in one place longer than a year. I worked odd jobs and slept at pay-by-the-month motels. It was easier to keep moving so I wouldn’t have to think.
No matter how much time passed, I always felt like they’d find me if I stayed in one place too long.
Maybe I should have thought of that before coming back to Vegas. But when I saw my father in the background of an article about one of Rick Zane’s casino openings, and I realized he didn’t die the night he helped me escape, I had no choice. He set me free, and I owed him the same.
I realized too late it was all a trap. Titan planted him in pictures on purpose to draw me back out, and it worked.
“Levi could probably help you get your stuff back from the motel,” Luna offers. “They might have a lost and found.”
“I doubt it. I don’t care about that stuff anyway. They’re just things.”
Growing up, possessions were a measure of success. Of importance. If my time with Titan taught me anything, it’s how little physical belongings matter. Now, the things that matter to me I hold in my heart or wear on my skin through memory-laced scars and ink.
“Well, I like the new outfit.” Luna’s gaze slides down my black T-shirt and dark-gray jeans. “Feels very you. ”
“Dark and angry?” I grin, flipping my hair off my shoulder.
Luna laughs. “Downright lethal.”
“Two of my favorite people.” Soul pops out of nowhere, stopping at my other side.
“You say that to all women.” Luna rolls her eyes.
“I only mean it with you two.”
“I thought you said you left him at the clubhouse so you could study?” My eyebrows pinch.
“Rude.” Soul scoffs, pretending to be offended.
Luna ignores his reaction. “That was the plan, but he tagged along. At least here he’s distracted.”
As evidenced by the fact that Soul has already blocked out our conversation to focus on the girl on stage. When she bends backward, Soul’s head tilts with the movement as he watches her.
“She’s new.” He grins.
“Maybe you should try not to scare her off then,” Luna suggests.
Soul ignores her, bumping my elbow with his. “Want a water?”
“Levi’s taking me out to lunch after this.”
“How very domestic of you two.” Soul sighs. “Next thing we know, we’ll be adding another house to the property.”
A mix of emotions swirls at his comment. As much as I’d love to let myself sink into that thought, the plan was always to leave Vegas after saving my father.
“What about you?” I ask Soul, diverting the conversation away from me and Levi. “Levi said you’ve got a house in the neighborhood. Are you planning on settling down someday?”
He huffs, but beneath the dismissive frown, there’s something darker that flashes in his eyes. “Fuck no. That was my dad’s house. He passed it down to me when he died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.” Soul’s jaw clenches. “I’m the one who put the bullet in his head.”
My back stiffens as I turn to look at him. It’s rare to find him not grinning or making jokes, so we haven’t really talked about anything serious. Until now.
His gaze meets mine, and I wonder if it’s his way of opening up just enough to let me know I’m not alone in battling demons.
“Did he deserve it?” It might be an inappropriate question, but Soul doesn’t flinch.
“He did.”
My gaze slides to Luna, who’s watching Soul as well, but she doesn’t look as surprised by the confession, so she might know more.
“Darts tonight?” Soul lifts off the bar, wiping the tension from his face.
“Only if you’re in the mood to lose.”
“We’ll see about that.” He smiles as he starts to walk toward Levi and Chaos. “Best two out of three.”
“Only because you’re worried I’ll beat you in the first round,” I shout after him.
Soul grins, turning away, and Levi glances up just long enough to meet my gaze. He winks at me, and then his attention is back on Chaos. But that butterfly he sends flitting through my chest lingers.
We’re standing in the middle of a room full of beautiful women, but I’m the one he pays attention to.
Luna has returned to her computer when I glance back at her, and from the corner of my eye, I see someone heading down the hallway.
His eyes are locked on Luna, but the silhouette isn’t Ghost. It takes me a moment to process what’s happening, but the man doesn’t turn like he’s heading toward the main stage like anyone else exiting the hallway.
He aims for our direction, straight for Luna, and my vision tunnels.
His hand shoots out.
Maybe for a drink, but it’s too close for comfort with her back to him.
My body moves on instinct, and I cut between them, slipping the pocketknife out of my pocket and flicking it open at his throat. My vision tunnels, and the music in the club dulls to a whisper beneath my heartbeat pounding between my temples.
“Aimee…” Luna’s hand finds my arm, but I stiffen, so she pulls back, taking a step away as she reads what’s happening.
And like Ghost was watching through a camera, he’s barreling down the hallway a second later.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Luna’s eyes widening as she takes in the scene, but I don’t drop the knife.
I don’t move.
I can’t .
The man with dark hair and even darker eyes stares down at me, and for a second, I’m not seeing him. It’s Titan before he shaved his head, wearing a wicked, gleaming smile that promises nothing but the sick things he does to everyone who comes within his vicinity.
I shove the blade harder against the man’s skin until his amusement falters.
Memories swirl with reality, and I’m no longer at Sapphire Rise, just like this man is no longer a stranger.
I’m no longer safe.
I’m in a basement.
A cell.
I’m locked to the floor in chains.
And this man is one of too many who looked at me like I was nothing. Who took without asking. Who hurt the people around me when I couldn’t do anything about it.
The tip of the blade digs into his throat.
A beautiful bead of blood drips down his neck, and I’m tempted to drive it all the way in.
He wouldn’t be the first man I’ve killed.
And while I can rationalize the past as self-defense, I’m aching to take the edge off.
To take this anger out on someone who probably does deserve it, even if not for this specific thing.
My hand shakes, and I’m tired.
So fucking tired.
“Firecracker.” Levi’s hand slips over mine, and I don’t know when he came up behind me.
His fingers fit over where mine hold the knife, but he doesn’t pull it away. He steadies my shaking hand.
I’ m vibrating.
My skin is covered in goose bumps as I try to place where I am. Who I’m holding a knife to.
The heat of Levi’s chest wraps around me. His thumb caresses the back of mine.
“Let go,” he says in my ear, and I relax my grip. “Let Ghost take care of this.”
Levi guides my arm down, flipping the knife closed as he does, and tucking it into my pocket. The second the knife is no longer at the man’s throat, Ghost and Chaos close in. They must have been standing right there, too, but I didn’t see them.
I couldn’t see anything through my memories.
Ghost and Chaos drag the man down the hall, and I don’t want to think about where they’re taking him. It could be that I misinterpreted the entire situation, and he was reaching for a beer, not Luna. I don’t want him to pay for my mistakes.
My trauma.
Luna and Soul are standing near the bar, watching me, but there isn’t judgment in their eyes. There’s concern, which isn’t any better.
My temples throb as I blink myself back into my body. Levi’s touch is barely a whisper as he circles until he’s facing me. He tilts my chin up, keeping the other on my hip in a way that is gentle but grounding.
His touch keeps me here when the universe won’t stop reaching its arm out. So many days—so many nights—I wished it would just take me away.
“He tried to touch her.” At least, I think. “He was reaching— ”
I shake my head, and nothing makes sense anymore.
Levi doesn’t respond. He looks into my eyes, and I let his dark gaze become my focal point. His eyes never change into someone else like the stranger’s eyes did. Levi isn’t my nightmare. He’s my safety.
“I don’t know what I’m doing sometimes,” I admit.
People might be watching us, but they can’t hear me whisper. And even if I just held a knife to someone’s throat in the middle of the club, Levi doesn’t seem to care. All he sees is me in this room full of people.
“I forgot where I was. Who he was—” My voice cracks.
“You’re here,” Levi reminds me, brushing his thumb over my hip. “With me.”
I nod, blinking back the tears in my eyes. I refuse to cry in the middle of a strip club. I refuse to lose my mind.
“You’re here,” he says again, cupping my jaw with his hand.
But he doesn’t step any closer. Like he’s letting me figure out what’s real and what’s not. What’s safe, and what isn’t.
After a long minute, I nod. “Please take me home.”
Levi wraps his arm around my shoulders to guide me out of the club. It isn’t until we’re outside that I realize he didn’t correct me when I called the clubhouse my home. And I don’t let myself linger on why I said it.